| The Tallest Man on Earth – This Wind Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Oh goodness, I love the phrase "cannonball love." Oh, and this song, too. |
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| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – A Children's Crusade On Acid Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Reference to the Children's Crusade back in 1212? I don't know much about it, but I came across it while reading for a history class the other night, and it made me think of this song. My book says: "A disastrous postscript to the Fourth Crusade was the Children's Crusade of 1212, in which thousands of children, aged between ten and fourteen, set out to recapture Jerusalem. Almost all died or were taken into slavery before reaching the Holy Land." It's not much, but it certainly makes me wonder. If it's related at all, it certainly would ease my annoyance at the title. It always seemed grammatically incorrect to me. I've always wanted it to say A "Child's" Crusade on Acid, but if it's A "Children's Crusade" on Acid, it works out. |
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| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – Broadripple Is Burning Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The song lyric discrepancy is from differing versions, I believe. The demo version of this song follows the lyrics listed above, while the version that made the record says "huffing glue" (I personally like the original phrase better) and "haunt you like a ghost." I absolutely adore this song, though. Especially the love in the basement line. |
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| Jens Lekman – Another Sweet Summer's Night On Hammer Hill Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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"oh, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty." reference to the film "american beauty?" |
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| Stars – The Aspidistra Flies Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Um. This is probably my favorite Stars song. Period. It's the prettiest thing in the world, and the imagery is absolutely beautiful. | |
| Manchester Orchestra – Girl With Broken Wings Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Oh jesus. Those last two lines. |
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| Horse Feathers – Walking & Running Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Yeah, it's "bitter pill." I stumbled across their myspace blog with all of the lyrics. Here are the correct lyrics: Walking and running, sucking and fucking at your will. You won't debate us, nor entertain us. It's your thrill. A bitter pill that you must take. Broken bones and hearts, that's your fate. I want out, I want to curse and shout. Get me from your mouth. Haters win, it just all depends if they won't, they won't miss a thing. We have just gone south. Get me, get me from your mouth. Heaven is what's just gone south. Do what you want, leave just your mouth. |
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| Horse Feathers – Walking & Running Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Is it just me or do I hear, "bitter pill that you must take" instead of "it'd appear that you must take take"? It makes sense, doesn't it? You've got to acknowledge that you will experience brokenness through your life; you've got to swallow the pill and deal with it even though the taste may be sour. | |
| The Films – Belt Loops Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This rhymes so nicely. | |
| Okkervil River – A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| "It Ends With A Fall" and "For Real" supposedly were played on Breaking Bonaduce, or so I've heard- can't say I've ever watched the show. The second verse refers to an episode of Cold Case, in which "Black Sheep Boy #4" was played. | |
| Okkervil River – Unless It's Kicks Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think tinydancer has been most accurate so far in deciphering the meaning. In an interview of Will Sheff I read recently, he spoke of fandon: "I think that in a lot of ways the album is about fandom. Or that's one of the things that it's about. And it's motivated out of fandom. I'm a tremendous fan of pop music, and art, and all of this stuff. I think there's kind of a tragic element to being a fan, where you believe it. You know what I mean? You believe these people are your friends. I've often felt as a child growing up that I was closer to writers that I had never met or that were dead than I was to my friends-- well, I really didn't have that many friends-- but the people that I was hanging out with and seeing everyday. There's something very beautiful about that, but there's also something really pathetic about it. I've been on both sides of it, because I know, also, that sometimes people will come up to me and they'll talk to me and many of the fans are very, very sane. But there is a kind of fan that will come up to talk to you and they're crazy and it becomes clear after a little bit [laughs], and you start to realize that they have an idea of you in their head that has nothing to do-- well, it actually has something to do-- with who you are, but it isn't who you are. And all you are is a star in their solar system...symbols and things that are personally significant to them but would be inscrutable to anyone else...Being a groupie is, in some ways, just an extreme form of fandom. I think that everyone has experienced, on some level, the emotion that motivates you to be a groupie. Groupies are also regularly disrespected, but all it is is somebody who loves something so much that they get involved with it sexually. Or maybe it doesn't even have to do with sex. I have felt a sense of fandom for things that I have loved that is so intense that it starts to bleed into spirituality, bleed into sexuality, and bleed into all kinds of areas of your life that love for a simple rock album should not be occupying." |
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| Okkervil River – Savannah Smiles Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Will Sheff discussed this in his interview with Pitchfork on August 20th, which is where I assume everyone go this info... Everyone's summed it up, but anyone who wants a direct quote: "Pitchfork: With these ideas of personal identity and transformation in mind, I'd like to ask you about "Savannah Smiles," a song that deals with the life and death of Shannon Wilsey, a young woman who took the name Savannah when she entered the adult film industry in the early 1990s. This is a person who became so subsumed by her new identity that she committed suicide after becoming disfigured in a horrendous automobile accident-- with such injuries, she no longer felt that she could be the beautiful adult film star Savannah. What drew you to Shannon's story? Will Sheff: I guess I could relate, or something like that. I'm really interested in pornography, because there's all this meaning that gets attached to pornography that has nothing to do with what pornography is. Because pornography is pretty much the simplest art form there is-- there's not a whole lot to it. There's not a lot of meaning there. But there is so much meaning that floats around it. I'm really interested in the way that people talk about actresses and actors-- but more with actresses-- in adult film, they are extremely condescending. Often times you either get that this person is some sort of worthless whore, or you get this "poor girl, she must have been abused" kind of thing. The case of Savannah is interesting because-- while not particularly special-- her parents blamed the adult film industry while the adult film industry blamed her parents and nobody really knows what the hell happened. And that's sort of the point of "Savannah Smiles"-- you don't know. There's sadness about her story that you cannot boil down to a TV movie-style explanation ….Ultimately, I also feel that indie rock and hipster culture seem to me to be very phobic of sexuality. There's a fetishizing of childhood-- like you can see it in Wes Anderson movies and in twee music, and the ways in which these grown men dress like children. I feel that there's a fear of sexuality, and one minor goal that I have with Okkervil River is that the songs are sexual. Not to say that they are about sex, but that they have an adult sexuality to them. That's what rock and roll is supposed to be about, right? It's supposed to be about sex…. Pitchfork: Yet Savannah was impregnated by Gregg Allman before the age of 17, and she went through a series of short-lived relationships with rock stars like Slash and Billy Idol…. Will Sheff: Yeah, she was a groupie. Pitchfork: So is this the relationship between rock and roll and sexuality that you wish to explore in your work? How do you reconcile the obviously exploitative nature of this state of affairs with perhaps a healthier understanding of the place of sex in the world of music? Will Sheff: Being a groupie is, in some ways, just an extreme form of fandom. I think that everyone has experienced, on some level, the emotion that motivates you to be a groupie. Groupies are also regularly disrespected, but all it is is somebody who loves something so much that they get involved with it sexually. Or maybe it doesn't even have to do with sex. I have felt a sense of fandom for things that I have loved that is so intense that it starts to bleed into spirituality, bleed into sexuality, and bleed into all kinds of areas of your life that love for a simple rock album should not be occupying. So with the groupie thing-- Savannah was involved with Slash, with Allman, and she's in the Tom Petty video for "Don't Come Around Here No More", as Alice [in Wonderland]. And the ending of that video, it's really beautiful and freaky. She's being eaten as a gigantic birthday cake…. Pitchfork: Yeah, I was 10 or so when that video came out, and I think it permanently warped my ideas of women and sexuality. Will Sheff: When I was writing "Starry Stairs", which was meant to be a sequel to "Savannah Smiles" [The Stage Names was originally conceived as a double album], I kept coming back to that image of her lying on the table-- and she's underneath the stage, as it's obviously a fake birthday cake body-- totally immobilized. She couldn't move if she wanted to in real life. And here is this rock band devouring her body. If there was ever a better image for the tragedy of the groupie-- that's it right there. So I was kind of thinking about that, too. " |
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| Cold War Kids – Sermons vs. the Gospel Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I really, really, really like this song- it might even be my favorite off of the album. Very...soulful. It's obviously very religious, though I can't tell you more than that. "The words can change the heart." The words= the Bible? That's what I thought. | |
| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – As Tall As Cliffs Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Richard tends to mention that he's tired a lot. I like it. |
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| Voxtrot – Ghost Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| "The third song on the album is called Ghost. It's about that Patrick Swayze movie. I'm just kidding...It's about the lead character in this novel called The Sea, and he goes back to the beach house where he spent his years as a child. As the book progresses you get this story of these weird things that happened with his neighbors and then about him meeting his wife and his wife dying of cancer and all his ruminations about death. And so it kind of- this year I've been kinda obsessed with death because my grandmother died, it kind of coincided with all the things I was thinking about." | |
| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – Hip Hip Hooray Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| The grave-starved ghost metaphor gets me every time. | |
| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – Things You Shouldn't Do Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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"Now I know you're tired But there's some things you shouldn't do Like giving your time To people who don't care for you." This is my favorite of theirs. I like how simple it seems to "not give time to people who don't care for you," but in reality it can be extremely difficult. I think it sort of gives insight to the more complex emotions of the human mind, if that makes any sense. |
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| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – Cheap Motel Room Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Does anyone know the first words he says at the very beginning of the song? I really want to know. | |
| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – Quiet as a Mouse Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| And I absolutely love the trumpet in this piece, by the way. | |
| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – Talking In Code Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I absolutely agree with the kid above me. That line gets me every time. It sort of captures a sort of aching agony that's just enhanced by the way he delivers it. And I also like what miki said. I love the "You keep moving" part, as well. Overall it's a great song. I'm a fan of their slower stuff. |
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| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – Quiet as a Mouse Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song amazes me. It's great to crank up when driving alone in your car and sing the lyrics as loud as can. Especially all the "When I woke..." Incredibly catchy. I'm not sure what it means, but it definitely stresses "waking up" a lot. Maybe realize something about yourself? Your current state of life, all the possibilities you're missing, or something? Because in the chorus it says that you need to wake up, because you're missing these things, time's going by and you aren't realizing it. Maybe you need to make the most of your life? I dunno. |
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| Motion City Soundtrack – Modern Chemistry Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I think it's mostly about how drugs (both prescribed and outlawed) might solve your problems for a while, but in the end it just ends up screwing you. Say a person has a bad leg that hurts. And not just "Ouch, that kinda hurts" hurts, an assuming-a-fetal-position-and-crying-yourself-to-sleep hurts. And that hurts. A lot. So say he starts taking some pills to ease the pain, and plans to for a long while. Soon, his body starts to get used to the pills, and it requires more and more to get the same pain-relieving effect that had when he started out. And when he's not under the pain medication, not only does his leg hurt, his head is throbbing, his vision is blurry, he's nauseated, etc etc, because its become a constant thing in his life and now the body feels it cannot function without it. Kind of like an alcoholic with his precious gin, vodka, etc etc. So he's now just a hell of a lot worse than before because of the damn pills. It's like a couple of the last lines: I'm barely off the medication and Now the walls are closing in again. The medication numbs him while on the pills, but when they wear off, he realizes he's not any different than before. He's still incredibly unhappy, some of the reasons causing him to be depressed haven't disappeared, and he's reduced to this shaking, sobbing, just plain sad mess. |
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| The Decemberists – A Cautionary Song Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Are you joking? Because if you are, it doesn't seem that way, and I shouldn't be debating this, but anywho. The fact that she's a mom who sells herself for sex isn't funny. Do you look past the outside situation? Do you think of why she sells herself for sex? It's the character I'm thinking of: how she's found herself in debt, and how she has a young son she has to care for, and how she feels the only thing she's good enough to make money off of is sex. Can you imagine how that woman would feel? I think I'd find myself rotten and dirty and worthless. I'd feel used and desperate and only as something good looking. I wouldn't see myself as a person valuable to society aside from my looks, because the men seem to think that that's all she has to offer. It's depressing, but so true, and there's nothing funny about someone who feels that way. It isn't just about the situation, it's about the person behind it. |
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| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – A Light On A Hill Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Does anyone else think that the "Light On A Hill" is a reference to John Winthrop's speech concerning one of the Massachusetts colonies? That's what it instantly reminded me of, but...I'm not sure if it's related or not. But this song is definitely one of my favorites of theirs. I think I prefer their slower stuff to the faster songs. |
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| The Decemberists – A Cautionary Song Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The mood is light and happy. A sea chanty of sorts, a jest. I'm instantly reminded of pirates drunkenly swaying with the rock of their ship and singing horribly out of tune. I think this is why people don't take it seriously. Its sad story is masked by the fact that its been written into a syncopated rhythm, a light and swaggering tempo. But in all honesty, despite this talk of it not being taken seriously, I do find it depressing. He describes the woman as weeping, there's snow falling delicately on her, the brutality of the sailors, her ankles are "clasped", etc. You can picture the sorry scene in your mind. He's created this complex character, she's real with realistic emotions, not the typical cardboard cutout you face in a lot of today's literature/television/music. He's given her a living, breathing personality, and if he just wanted to say "Hey, listen to your Ma!" He wouldn't have created this desolate tone with lonely diction and the like. He would have just said, "Hey. Your mom sleeps to feed you. Listen to her." But he's taken the time to create her thoughts and picks out her particular actions. I think it should be taken seriously. |
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| Margot & the Nuclear So and So's – Real Naked Girls Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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You can get this one at their myspace, I know. That's where I got mine. As for all the other songs about which you've asked the same thing, I got mine here: http://www.musicalfamilytree.com/bands.php?BandID=38 As for the song, I love it. It's seems to me very...peaceful, and kind of ...nice? Sweet? Man, I'm so inarticulate. |
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| Okkervil River – Okkervil River Song Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Whenever I hear this song and the "I searched and stared but only the river stared back" line, I can't help but think that he's searching for himself. You know, how you look into the water and you see your own reflection? And he says that only the water stares back, maybe meaning he doesn't know who he is exactly. *shrugs* Probably completely wrong, it's just a sort of feeling I get when I hear that part. It's a beautiful song, either way. |
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